African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources

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African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources

• KEWL.NextGenNext-generation e-learning system

Free Software Innovation Unit Information
Communication ServicesThe University of the
Western Cape
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The project

• Create the next generation of e-learning
  software, KEWL.NextGen
• As released in Beta on Jan 27th, it is already
  one of the most advanced e-learning platforms in
  the world
• More than just the e-learning system
• Capacity building at UWC and in partner
  institutions around Africa

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Origins and design

• Designed based on the things that we have learned
  in the past decade of experiences in e-learning
• Also based on what has been learned from others
  who have researched and published in rich field
  of e-learning research

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Key sources of learning
design a system geared to supporting
collaborative, multi-institutional,
multi-national e-learning programmes

• NetTel_at_Africa
• Online masters in ICT policy and regulation
  jointly developed and taught by nine African
  higher education institutions
• Hosted at UWC using previous version of KEWL, so
  many opportunities to learn from the
  collaborative experience
• National Information Society Learnership in
  Environmental Informatics
• DST initiative implemented in collaboration with
  CSIR
• Hosted at UWC using previous version of KEWL so
  many opportunities to learn from a different kind
  of collaborative experience

Not forgetting individual institutionalneeds
based on e-learning experience within UWC
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Examples of innovations

• Active dynamic mirroring
• Allows institutions to run multi-institutional
  e-learning programs, host a local server for fast
  access, but still allow inter-institutional
  collaboration.
• Multilingual interface
• KEWL.NextGen is easily translated into another
  language, and we provide an easy-to-use desktop
  application that can be used offline for this
  purpose.

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Examples of innovations

• Offline content authoring
• We provide an offline authoring tool that allows
  content to be authored offline and saved to the
  server as easily as saving locally
• Problem based learning
• Based on the latest approach to medical
  education, problem based learning allows for
  collaborative online problem solving

and many more innovative features!
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African Virtual Open Initiatives Project (AVOIR)

• Building processes and capacity to
• Develop and support Free Software Innovation in
  African higher education institutions
• Do so by uniting scarce and dispersed skills
  towards a common purpose
• Deliver world-class, innovative software and
  services in the process

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AVOIR Partners to date

• The University of the Western Cape (South Africa)
• University of Jos (Nigeria)
• Universite Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (Senegal)
• Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and
  Technology (Kenya)
• University of Nairobi (Kenya)
• Makerere University (Uganda)
• University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
• Catholic University of Mozambique (Mozambique)
• The University of Eduardo Modlane (Mozambique).

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The 2005 innovation pipeline

• PETS (Pedagogically enhanced teacher-like
  services)
• Integrated realtime virtual classroom with voice
  and video
• Full international standards and specification
  compliance
• Open Knowledge Initiative compliance
• Integrated SMS cellphone messaging
• Tracking and analysis
• Richer learning tools
• Postgradate supervision and support modules
• Creative commons license selection and
  integration of content with global archives

these are just examples.
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Acknowledgements

• UWC and the AVOIR team extend sincere thanks to
• The Department of Science Technology (South
  Africa)
• The International Development Research Centre
  (Canada)
• Carnegie Corporation of New York (USA)
• United States Agency for International
  Development (USA)
• Microsoft
• UNESCO